Page 16 - GLNG Week 19 2022

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Mitsui writes down value of

Russian LNG investments

INVESTMENTS JAPAN’S Mitsui & Co. said this week that it had Indeed, Mitsui said that while it wants to
written down the value of its investments in two remain involved in Sakhalin-2, the company’s
Russian LNG projects by a combined JPY80.6bn position on Arctic LNG 2 could yet change.
($617mn). The company reduced the value of its “There is a good chance that the situation in
12.5% stake in the Sakhalin-2 oil and LNG pro- Arctic 2 will change, but that is not the case at this
ject by JPY44.1bn ($338mn) and cut the value of stage,” said Mitsui’s CEO, Kenichi Hori. “If that
its investments in the under-construction Arctic occurs, we’ll make an announcement after eval-
LNG 2 project by JPY36.4bn ($279mn). uating the situation and confirming what needs
Mitsui also reported a JPY20.9bn ($160mn) to be confirmed among the partners.”
loss in its LNG business in connection with its Hori’s comments were reported by Japanese
investments in Russia. The figure includes provi- media within days of France’s TotalEnergies,
sions against potential losses on loan guarantees another investor in Arctic LNG 2, saying it was
the company has made. difficult to see how the project could now be
The war in Ukraine and the exit of various completed in light of sanctions and the fact that
international oil companies (IOCs) from their it would not direct any more funds to it.
investments in Russia have brought the partic- Separately, another Japanese company,
ipation of other companies, including Japanese Marubeni, reported a write-down related to its
ones, into sharp focus. The Japanese government stake in Sakhalin-1 this week. The company said
has insisted that Japanese companies will con- it had cut its exposure to Russia by JPY12.6bn
tinue to participate in Russian projects – nota- ($96.5mn) and that even though it wanted to
bly Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 – as they seek withdraw from the project owing to the war in
to retain access to energy imports. But they are Ukraine, it would stay in line with Japanese gov-
increasingly coming under pressure, including ernment policy. ™
financial pressure.

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 19 13•May•2022